This recipe was inspired by Andrea Nguyen’s beautiful new cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day. The book contains “simple recipes for true, fresh flavors”. This salmon delivers just that.

If garlic isn’t your thing, this one might not be for you. I suppose you could skip out on the garlic, but it adds some depth to an otherwise light dish. I learned the technique of making garlic chips from Bon Appetit’s Garlicky Fried Rice recipe, and now I want to sprinkle these golden, sweet, umami nuggets on everything. It’s an extra step, but so worth it.

If you’re making this for two, halve the ingredients, and cook the salmon at 400’ for 12-15 minutes. This is pretty light, so if you’re one who likes dinner to stick a bit more, use can use brown rice in place of the cauli rice, and add some avocado.

Since the salmon and cauli rice use many of the same ingredients, it is easiest to grate/mince/chop them all before starting the cooking process to save time. Just make sure you divide them!